Today’s Workout – Speed Workout
Total Mileage: 14.00 miles
Total Time: 2:10:02
Average Pace: Workout (8:44 min/mile), Warm up (9:30 min/mile), Cool Down (10:00 min/mile)
Today’s workout was definitely a tough one!
The most important part of the workout was the 9 miles and the rest are simply extra miles and recovery.
Miles are great, but the most important thing in any training plan are the hard workouts. If you are hitting these workouts, the other miles don’t matter. Your speed workouts and your long runs are key the other miles are just extra.
I recently watched this video by Alberto Salazar and I think he talks about it very well.
“As long as you hit the hard workouts and are progressing, how you feel on the easy days – it doesn’t matter.”
Alberto trains mainly 5k and 10k runners. As a marathon runner your easy days are going to be much slower than the 1:00-1:30 he refers to in the beginning, but the important things I take from this is that it is most important to hit your hard workouts and how you feel during your easy days really don’t matter. If you are not progressing, then that is a problem – but if you focus on your hard workouts and give them all you’ve got you should see progression.
He also talks later on about how as you progress as a runner you realize you will feel like crap after a lot of your hard workouts, but you learn that your body WILL recover and you will be fine tomorrow.
I pulled this workout form a new book I have been reading recently.
Advanced Marathoning has some great information about running in general and in the back they have training plans broken down by the amount of miles you are looking to do per week.
As I get closer to the marathon I will be running I may use the training plans, but for now I use them to help me on my speed work or tempo days. They help to keep things interesting and mix my workouts up.
I was a complete and sweaty mess once the workout was over.
The 4 miles at 7:47 pace was really tough. I was having some crazy hip pain as well that started during my warm up so the mental toughness of this run was very hard. I worked through it and was very proud to complete it by the end of the workout.
I have some great things coming for the blog during the next few weeks. A new product review, a new giveaway coming in about a week, and even a whole new blog design if I can ever finish it! So lots to look forward to!
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How many hard workouts do you do during a week?
Wow! Way to go! That sounds like a tough workout. Also I have that book and love it!
It’s a great book with lots of great information for everyone! Love the workouts too – always helps to have somewhere to pull some workouts from!
Love the blog layout update!! I’m training for a marathon right now (6 weeks away!). This training round is a trial run and it’s going well so far. I’ve been running 4 days a week with one day with sprints. I do my long runs on Saturday and then a short/fast run on Sundays which I’m enjoying. I guess I kind of try to go hard on my runs during the week and take it a bit easier on my long run. It’s a work in progress 🙂
Thank you 🙂 still working on it! Sounds like a great plan you are on! Trail marathon sounds intense – I’d be scared to do that just because of how clumsy I am 🙂 haha good luck with your training!!!